Humanity and what came after
by Anrheithwyr
Summary: The Black cousins had all gathered around the radio to listen, while an American man cried of horrible, terrible things.


_**Written for the 'Quidditch League Competition' Round 3: Some Real World History, using the destruction of a vessel/aircraft.**_

_**All usage of the following recordings do not belong to me. They belong to their rightful owners, I am merely using them for the purpose of this story. **_

…

_The date? Why, sir, it was May 6, 1937, of course. Everyone remembers that day with such clarity. I remember listening to it on the radio the day after, when the Americans finally let everything broadcast. I remember the pictures in the papers that appeared for the next week. Oh, it was just horrible, and I remember every moment of it. _

…

"You've got to hear what they are saying now! On the radio, you've just _got _to hear what the Americans are saying now. It's just _horrible! _They're saying that that big blimp that the Germans had caught fire yesterday! Just listen!"

Cedrella pushed past her cousin Dorea to get to the radio she had set up in Arcturus' room, fiddling with it for a moment and then sitting back as it came to life, letting the others come closer as a small American-sounding voice began to speak.

The cousins all sat together, huddled around Arcturus' bed as they bunched in together, listening to the radio as it crackled and hissed.

The radio, of course, had been _snuck_ in by Cedrella, who enjoyed many of the various inventions that the Muggle world had come up with since it had disconnected with the Wizarding world.

They were all there, excepting Charis, Walburga, and Lucretia, who were, of course, still at Hogwarts and would most likely not receive word of this event for another day or two at best; but of the seven that remained-from Pollux to Orion-they listened to the radio with rapt attention, listening with growing horror to the Muggle voice that cried out, the words coming out clearly enough that the terror in his voice could be heard.

"_The rain had…uhh…slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it…uh…just enough to keep it from...__It's burst into flames!__ Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible!"_

"That is just _awful_!" Cassiopeia cried, moving away from the radio with a look of disgust. "How can you all just sit there and _listen _like it does not bother you? My god, are you all soulless? Stop _listening _to that dreadful man."

But the others paid no attention to her, and, still grumbling, Cassiopeia resigned herself to flopping onto the bed, covering her ears with pillows in an effort to drown out the sound.

"_And all the folks agree that this is terrible; this is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world-" _

For a second, there was a loud crackling and they couldn't make out the words, but then the sound came back, and the horror in his voice seemed to increase.

"-_its flames... Crashing, oh! Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's in flames now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. __Oh, the humanity!__ And all the passengers screaming around here. I told you; it—I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen…"_

"You are all such _beastly _people," Cassiopeia moaned from the bed, but Pollux merely waved a hand at her to hush his younger sister, turning the sound on the smuggled radio up just a little. "Beastly, beastly,_ beastly _people! I should hardly want to even know you!"

"Then leave, Cassie. If you do not want to know us, then just leave," said Cassiopeia's other sibling, Dorea, who waved a hand at the door. "We don't mind that you are not with us, if all you are going to do is call us beastly and complain. This is a _terrifying _event, and if you should be too much of a coward to listen, then I suggest you just leave right now, Cassie."

Cassiopeia made a small face, crossing her arms and huffing, but she remained on the bed, and so the others turned back to the radio, ignoring her once again.

"_Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed…"_

Here, his voice tapered off until there was only the hissing of the absence of his voice; the Black cousins were left to stare at each other in horror, and Callidora was beginning to wonder if this had been such appropriate listening material for ten year old Arcturus and eight year old Orion.

"What was the ship called, Pollux?" Orion asked just then, his big blue eyes looking up at the twenty-five year old, an expression of fear crossing over his face in a way that made Cedrella regret bringing the radio around for them to listen to.

"It was called the Hindenburg," Cedrella explained quietly, covering her face in her hands. "It was called the Hindenburg…it was a German aircraft that was being shown off in America…oh, _Merlin_, there were _people _on that ship. Oh!"

At this, Cassiopeia burst into tears and began crying about the horrors of the Germans for building the Hindenburg, and the horrors of the Americans for talking about it, and the horrors of Cedrella for forcing her to listen to the broadcast.

"Do you suppose it was the Germans that did this on purpose, brother? I should think they don't like the Americans enough to do it." Dorea asked her brother, Pollux, who only shook his head, dumbstruck from the man on the radio.

"There were Germans on the Hindenburg, Dorea. German _citizens. _Do you truly think the Germans so heartless that they would intentionally leave their own people to die on an airship? No, this was not on purpose, I shouldn't think. But still, it _is _terrible, is it not, to hear such a horrible thing on the radio? Cedrella, why did you allow us to listen to such a thing?"

"Because she is absolutely _beastly_, that is why!" Cassiopeia cried, flinging her fists against the bed and kicking in a way that made her look like a child throwing a fit. "She is a _beastly _person who cares for no one else, and she wanted to make the rest of us afraid!"

_Afraid_…is that what they were? The cousins looked around at each other as Cassiopeia continued to cry and fling herself on the bed. _Were they afraid_?

And, if so, of what? Of the possibility of war? Of the destructive capabilities of the Muggles? Of the terror that had come from such a disaster?

…

_The date? Sir…sir…it was May 6, 1937. Of course I remember it with such clarity. It was…it was just awful, and I do not think I should get over it any time soon. Oh, it was just awful…you would not deign to understand, having not been there yourself, but I remember it all so clearly…it was just _terrible._ And what came after? I don't think it was any better._


End file.
